I am so fucking sick. I don't know what's up with my stomach lately. I mean, I expected some pain after the holidays, but I swear to god I'm becoming so fucking delicate in my old age. WTF. Plus my head hurts and I'm achey --

So actually, I'm pretty sure I have the flu or something.

Oh well. I have Kasabian tickets for March 20. If anyone wants to go, I got an extra!

Zero progress since that last post, but I somehow came up with 219051 errands that needed run yesterday (AGAIN), before Balaji zooms off leaving me and Tara without a car for the weekend. Now I'm preparing to head down to Union Station and grab her off the train. I cannot possibly mind this state of affairs.

BUT the cool thing is that when I get back to edits, I don't think I have to actually rearrange anything else. It's cuts from here on out, and I have some major ones coming up. So yay!

Charlatans time! I've never been to this club, and it's not in the greatest neighborhood, but hey. That's what cabs are for.

I convinced him we should buy the el cheapo opera tickets, since some Verdi would be good for me (and G, let's be honest, he can't help loving Verdi)--and that's the only one I really want to see this season. Alas, not all the tickets in the discounted sections were actually available for the, you know, DISCOUNT. They were open when I checked--when I logged in and put in the Generation O (club for opera fans under 35--I know, right?) code, no dice. Fuckers!

Then I realized Opera in the Outfield is doing that one, so I can see it for free at Nat's Park anyhow. Bwahahaha.

June 221. Power outage at 7pm. Lasted til I went to bed. So nothing I had to do before I left got done. NOTHING.June 231. Race to get jeans through dryer.2. Left late.3. Found US v. Algeria on ESPNRadio.4. Was pulled over for the first time in my life before I even got out of Arlington Co. Reason: expired tags. Fuck!5. Listened in increasing frustration to US v. Algeria.6. Screamed my fucking head off when Landon Donovan scored. Good thing no cops were around, might've been pulled over for sheer insanity.7. Listened to Interpol. Lots.8. Arrived in Pittsburgh. It's amazing how much I miss that fucking city. Say what you will, but it is really beautiful as cities go.9. Went to The Melting Pot with Tara. She likes fondue. Convinced her to eat veggies and drink-- neither of which she generally does.10. Found the theater, which was quite literally a refurbished church. Hot as fuck inside. Sweat dripping before the opening act was off.11. Had another drink to calm myself down.12. Met adorable drunken Polish girl with whom we discussed Interpol and the dangers of an all-ages show. (Those dangers being teenagers in general and the all-pervasive smell of desperation.)13. Stood back in the bar to watch, having cleverly arranged ourselves next to the bouncer/aisle by which people reached the bar. Meaning no one could stand for several feet in front of us. Short set list, but awesome. Mostly Antics and Turn on the Bright Lights, and the new shit is really good.14. Had excellent view of Paul for most of show. Almost died of fangirl glee when he wore the Pirates hat. Almost. Fogarino and Kessler adorable-- new bass player acceptable replacement. Amazingly.15. Left giddy with newly converted Interpol Devotee best friend. (She never disliked them, but she wasn't INTO them. As in crazy like me. Now she might be.)16. Met up with Matt and went to Kings. Missed Pittsburgh some more.17. Stayed up til 5 talking about crazy shit.June 241. Watched World Cup news. More glee because Italy is out-- bad acting motherfuckers!2. Went to lunch.3. Got coffee.4. Left Pittsburgh. Was sad.5. Listened to Interpol.6. Felt much better once I was inside the beltway. I'd rather live in DC, but you know. Home is home.

I am fucking tired, but it was all worth it. Now I just gotta see them again after the album's out so I can hear them play it. Yeah.

Sidetracked from finalizing beta read of awesome (last 20 pages!) today by preparations for company tomorrow-- Sheetal and then Leah joins him on Thursday. Let summer begin! Come to DC, you know you want to!

(Yes I love when people visit. I realize I am not that social, but I like who I like, and I like doing nerdy DC things with them. It is awesome.)

So I did some cleaning, went to the store, and am now preparing for THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO. Yes. Tonight. I get to see my The Opera That Made Me Like Opera performed by the National Opera at the Kennedy Center.

Did I mention yet that I hope we don't have to move away any time soon?

In other My Life Is Awesome news, my husband just agreed to another trip to Philly before draft 2 of Resurrectionists commences. I offered to go by myself some week when he's at Duke, since I want to spend it almost entirely in the Pennsylvania Historical Society library... but he wants to come.

Don't get me wrong, our chief occupation in life is annoying each other, but my husband is so awesome. Sure, he just wants to eat at Morimoto again... but so do I, and I couldn't have without him. It would've been like treason. (No really, he loved our last trip there when we did the nerdy typical tourist stuff.)

New Philly reading commenced last night too. It's going to be just that and shorts for me for a few months, I'm thinking. Exciting stuff.

So tonight, finishing touches on beta read/general thoughts write-up (spoiler alert: this book is tight. My god), and scripting next chapter or 3 of Plaguebringer. No gaming for me, but s'okay. I'll be too high on Mozart for it anyhow.

I am in the honeymoon stage with Plaguebringer. Next to nothing is written, but everything is planned out, and the HUGE FINAL MOMENT has finally crystallized in my head. (Ronan is really not that excited about being covered in Minaddon Crusader blood, though-- so I guess I'll compromise and let him be half-covered. So long as his hair is caked. He's okay with that, since he never notices it anyhow. That's my sweet little Plaguebringer!) I'm so pleased with it all that I don't even mind knowing I'll hate it with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns within a month. It, and all the loud motherfuckers it involves.

Admittedly, part of my excitement stems from having a file on my desktop right now titled "insults.txt"-- which contains various ways to insult people, or just swear in general, in different imaginary countries.

Lots of beta reading today, then lots of, er, watching John Adams. Yes, again. See, I just finished Pride and Prejudice-- which I was watching during work-out time, but Balaji and I sat down and finished it all in one go the other day. So I needed something to watch during Workout Hour today and I thought, well, I'll put in John Adams, since Mom just brought it back when they were here.

And now I can't stop.

Still pissed I didn't get to go to Monticello this summer. Ah well, spring will bring me my fix.

I feel like shit today, and it's raining again, so I can't get to the store. Which I guess is good, since I feel like shit, but still!

Yet I'm in a decent mood because I have stuff to do, which keeps me busy. The "Scirpped" edit goes well-- this is the first time I've ever edited a book and not been in a state of absolute despair over it in the middle. I think this is mostly due to Meghan's unwavering support of it, honestly, but that's really good for me just now. Seeing as my heart is still mostly full of hate.

But I need a break in the middle here, and if I log on to LotRO I'll lose a good three hours. So I'm going to do this music meme I got from Leah over on LJ.

Whatever the weird flu was that I thought I was getting before Tara and Matt came, it hit me really hard last night. Either that or they gave me the plague, since Matt was just getting over it. I was so miserably fevered I actually went to bed at 9pm. Only to wake up again at midnight after the fever broke and spend a few hours randomly slaying Guaradan-- which I'd been wanting to do anyhow. But still. That sucked.

I'm coughy and achy today, but it's not half as bad. I even made myself eat a real lunch instead of just cereal as a precaution. I'm so proud.

Anyhow, Metallica was awesome-- weird sentence, but true. They kicked some ass. I did a dorky ass write up on the dorky ass blog, but it's here. I still can't believe how close we were to the stage. So strange. I mean, I've been closer, but a band as big as Metallica you never really think that'll happen. And helped a lot with Neenah, as it was more her kind of vibe than any of the stuff I'd usually go to, just in terms of rabid, fist-pumping fans.

No one really does the fist-pumping at Oasis shows. Just saying.

And that's about it. I should probably get to editing The Horologist based on Balaji's info, but I'm kind of feeling lazy since my face and throat hurt. Might get it done tonight or something.

Also: the_literatzzi people who know her-- mssolo has a story called Swan Made in this M/M erotica fairy tales collection, Bedknobs and Beanstalks [WARNING: man ass on the cover]. Tell me that isn't the best name ever. It's always cool when someone you know from fandom gets published, anyhow. I'm of course skipping to hers (Mina Kelly is the nom de plume) and then reading the rest, but you know. Thought others might be interested.

There! I took a few more but those are the ones I twittered. Dude. So happy.

Right, supposed to be working this morning-- I wrote a huge chunk of my watchmaker story yesterday on the train because it's been gnawing on my brain. However, in spite of this fine fucking cafe Americano, my brain is still in sleep state. Therefore reading now. Work later.

Also, Manics. Did I mention the Manics and how brilliant they are? Because, Manics!!1!!!one!

-Joe Don Baker is still made of awesome.-I scored a bargain-priced book about witches (nonfiction stuff!) at the Natural History museum. What else burns? MORE WITCHES! (Yeah, we had to quote half the movie at that point.)-Car was broken into, as part of what has apparently been a week-long string of car burglaries here in Yuppie Town. A neighbor heard someone else's alarm go off (ours didn't, wtf?) and called the cops, so they caught three dudes. Our window is smashed, and the Garmin gone. They left the CDs, which Nick feels is a commentary on my taste. He's probably right.-Nick bought Sherry her first Art Book-- she fell in love with Jasper Johns (which I saw coming as soon as she said the words, "mixed media").-Bargain book table at National Gallery yielded up a fucking fabulous catalogue of Van Dyck stuff. Obviously I do not have enough books on Dutch and Flemish baroque already, right? Right. (In my defense, none of them are specifically on Van Dyck-- which is just wrong.)-Also got a little overview of Botticelli's most famous stuff since I was all high from having seen my favorite portrait of his upstairs*. Also, Malphus's vanity requires recognition after he did me a good turn this week. (Really nice reproduction of Madonna of the Magnificat in there, and that's him!)-Gotta go get the car window fixed today. Fucking irritating!-La Boheme today, and Megan's going to come with us too, since she's in town from San Francisco for the week for a conference, so yay! Now, let's hope they fix the car window before it's time to go...

Hmm I'd better get to fucking work on this book, for serious. Of course, I only have tomorrow to do up what I can for this week, so I'll need to kick some super serious ass (by which I mean fill in some of the insane amount of script littering this fucking HD... and backing it up every five seconds. Computer. Dying. Poor thing!) Then it'll sit still for a week, at which point I'll be twitching and will likely bust out of the gate as quickly as possible. But still. Dude. August.

According to my latest Plan that'll give me September for a quick Wolfton fix (aww, I totally miss them...) and queries, and a Jonah skim/round of begging for help (because I'm still not sure I'll be able to change anything about his plot since it's like... pretty straightforward, man.)

Plus scurrying Sheehy preparation so they're good to go in November. Being a little more ambitious this time, with much harder PoVs that switch back and forth and a full 80k expected. But if last time is any indication, the challenge will be good for me! Other good news on that front: new Arctic Monkeys album at the end of this month. (How nice of them to give me a birthday present like that. Okay, so it's the day before my birthday, but still. Close enough!) Just in time for me to listen obsessively for a month, figure out which song is for what, and overuse it for this book... assuming it works. Which, well, all their other stuff does, and if Crying Lightning is any indication, this will too. So fuck it!

I predict much of November will be spent plugged into my iPod in DuPont circle typing furiously. Sounds fun.

Anyhow. The symphony was fucking kick ass last night. Lots of crickets during the Pastoral (and I really liked the way the guy directed it-- better than my Karajan recording, which kinda surprised me. That one never surprises me anymore, except by how much I like it every time I hear it. I don't care if Beethoven isn't cool, I fucking love the guy! Mostly for his piano stuff... but seriously.) The Mendelssohn was rad, even if the violinist seemed kind of nervous in how she played it-- pushing things. But it was beautiful anyhow.

And Copland is always amazing. Damn dude. So cool. Although I admit that I was listening to Corral Nocturne and suddenly wondered if maybe Serge Pizzorno was into Copland too, since he seems to have stolen some Wild West flavor from the man on this last Kasabian album.

And then I realized I'd probably be struck dead for my blasphemy and purged the thought as quickly as possible.

But we had wine and Whole Foods dinners and bare feet on the lawn the whole while.

I had something else to record here, but I went to handle the laundry and forgot. That's what happens when you do laundry at 3am. Bed!

So for anyone keeping score at home, that's Franz Ferdinand ass-shaking awesome, Wolverine with Action BabyGambit (and company who actually cared, for both of those!), and Trek. Trek beyond my wildest dreams and expectations.

No really, I can't express how cool it is. Go see it. That is how you make a fucking sci-fi movie.

Important note: Alex Kapranos actually has an ass, and it is good. This was an important scientific discovery we made Thursday night, so I thought you might care.

Okay, I know you don't, but I'm just suggesting you should rethink that stance.

I'm back in Arlington, if you haven't guessed. I have been since late last night, but after we ate our dinner of gourmet dosa I started to notice that I was getting a little drowsy (or maybe it was just because waiting for the subway was the first time we'd held still for that long in a while?). In retrospect, from the first Yuengling around 2pm Thursday to that dosa, it was just waiting to catch up with me-- 48 hours of jumping around like a jackass and 10 hours of sleep all told, eh, I'm not as young as I used to be I guess. Ha! I return triumphant and full of awesome things, thoughts, and happiness with Marvel and the world in general-- including singing frogs. Thanks again Reenie, we tore that shit up! (And thanks to Ben for putting up with me being high on Franz. He's a brave, darling dude.)

I don't really get why people are bitching about Wolverine. I've been waiting for how fucking long to get Gambit on screen and he was great, man. Kinda too pretty, but since he was like Baby Gambit it worked. And... SCOTT AND EMMA!!!

*ahem*

That kid needs to always play Scott from now on, if anyone's wondering. Wow.

Hmm what else do I need to squeal about? Really, I don't even know. Oh wait, I think I actually will start reading Amazing Spider-Man again! I bought one and it was actually pretty kick-ass. There it is.

I got some good stuff down on the train. I can't decide how much I want to figure Dart into the Resurrectionist thing now, but I'm toying with a few interesting ideas. Obviously he's very secondary, but his whole illegitimate son status and his mother's particular situation could give him a very interesting take on Paul's whole creepy thing with the prostitute. So you know, I might throw out everything I wrote down (which was mostly conversations with Dart/Tommy/Becca, which I now realize would get ugly, but might not be worth delving into more than cursorily, and just as a way to fuck Tommy off... which she might do, bless her), or I might not. But it was a good exercise, and this little Dart Novella (WHAT THE FUCK CAN I CALL IT?! ARGH!!) really served its purpose in terms of opening up and preparing me for the Resurrectionist.

Really, all I need to do before Thursday is finish up with Amanda's novel, and go through Wolfton. I think I'll print out the first couple of chapters and take them, but... maybe not the whole thing. I mean, she has it. Who knows, I reckon I'll get an instruction email from the Pennwriters people soon. And until then I'm going to think about it as little as possible. I now realize that being a writer is already pretty much the biggest acting job in the fucking world.

Thanks, Dad, for all the prep work on that.

Mkay, Star Trek now. My life kind of rocks, this weekend.

Okay, it really rocks. I can say it.

--whoa, I just got the read-and-critique guidelines from the Pennwriters people when I went to press send. Freaky, dude.

Well Dart's little (er, huge) story is done at 21,229 words, which is all right. I have a feeling it'll get pared quite a bit once someone with a brain sees it, but for now, done. DONE.

It was good fun, anyhow. The story's a bit crap right now, but I like the kid, I must say.

It goes like this:

“Well, here’s to the blood in our veins, and the bodies in the church yards, Paul. May they stay where they belong, until we need them elsewhere.”

“I’ll drink to that, Francis.”

So today I got an email from the Oasis Shop (yeah, I'm on the mailing list... shut up!) about them releasing "The Dreams We Have As Children" in the US finally-- which is the recording of the show Noel did for the Teenage Cancer Trust a few years back. And Weller is there for a Jam (Butterfly Collector ftw!) and Beatles song! And then Noel does "There is a Light That Never Goes Out"!

Admittedly, it's not quite as ironic as when Morrissey sings it, but I don't usually like covers, and I really like this one. I was also really happy when Balaji came out of the office, paused to listen to "Cast No Shadow" and went, "Yeah, you're right, Tara's wrong. Noel can't bring it like Liam."

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Ahem. Because yes, if you haven't guessed, Tara regularly winds me up about them not needing Liam to sing-- which is preposterous, but she's evil. Once Balaji made the mistake of saying, "You know... well, no, probably not, you're right." But the definitive answer was required of him, and he delivered. (This from the one man in the world who saw Oasis live and was actually impressed with Liam Gallagher's stage presence. "He doesn't even have to move! He's fucking cool!" Right. Let's go with that. He's fucking cool, man!)

Sheetal is officially moved into St. Paul, which means my plans to descend upon the twin cities this summer will meet with no resistance; I can pawn Bala off on him!

Over the last few days, two people have been going through my fanfic at ff.n, both 616 and Evo, and adding them all to their favorites. That's totally sweet.

And reminded me of Alex half-finished on my hard drive. Maybe he's the answer, really. Sometimes I forget why I wrote fanfiction in the first place: so I could lay off the stupid shit I usually write that was making me crazy. I should keep that in mind more often. Fanfiction is impossible to hate (for me!), a lifesaver, and I love it.

I'm not saying I'll do it soon, I'm just saying I'd kinda like to. I only have three more to go, and I know what happens with all of them. Alex, Scott, and JM. I kinda wish I was already on JM's because I've been waiting for it forever, but... you know. I love me some Summers Boys.

Also, just found out the NSO is doing a program this summer at Wolf Trap (that means LAWN TICKETS DUDE!) with a Mendelssohn violin concerto (Not sure which, but I'd be willing to be it's my favorite, since that's sorta the one), Beethoven's 6th (the one symphony of his I'd really like to see live-- it's my first classical music memory!), and Copland's Rodeo--

And Balaji's out of town that weekend, poor guy. I'd go by myself like a tool (wouldn't be the first time!), but it looks like Nick wants to come. Score!

Also, La Boheme in August. I can't think of a cooler way to see it than sitting on some grass drinking crappy overpriced wine out of a plastic cup! (Plus: Big screens with translations. Opera for the schlubs like me, word up. Mmm Puccini-licious!)

Plus, this weekend all lawn seats are even cheaper than usual. $10. Fuck dude!

So this week, for those not usually on IJ/logged in, has been a bit wild on my end, and is about to get wilder, in a pretty awesome way. Balaji's leaving in an hour or less for Durham. Tomorrow I'm having company (Reenie!) and we're going to see Primal Scream (FINALLY, Jesus, it's been like, oh man, 12 years-- I'm so old. But YAY!), and then Saturday evening once Bala gets home I'm leaving for WV, where I'll be until next Sunday. Mom's laid up, in pain, and threatening to throw herself on her (proverbial) sword in frustration, so I'm going armed with Jeeves and Wooster and Sherlock Holmes DVDs and try and keep her from taking such drastic measures. Oh, and so Dad doesn't have to clean the house, since it's the weekend before the high school spring musical, and he's been doing both his own (director) and Mom's (music director) jobs for the last three weeks as it is.

Videos from V Fest-- not that great sound wise, but still gives you some idea of what they sounded like. Noel is awesome. Anyhow, pretty good indicator of exactly what I saw that day, since he was standing just over my head taking these.

The Importance of Being Idle:

Also, a much shorter one of Stereophonics earlier, doing maybe my favorite song of theirs... well no, but it's close. This one in particular shows you how awfully near to the speakers we were-- Matt's camera is exploding trying to take in the bass.

Ryan Adams was boring. Noel summed it all up when he said, "I'd like to thank Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. Of all the bands we've toured with, they've been... the most recent."

Also, they were very high. Good, but wow. Dude.

Liam sucked for the first three songs (Rock N Roll Star, Lyla, The Shock of the Lightning), then he decided to rock. (He was totally belligerent about something or other, singing like it was a boxing match. If it wasn't so funny I'd have been pissed.)"This song is for all the ladies. Of the Washington area... Fairfax... wherever the fuck we are." *launches into Slide Away*. Don't worry dude, we're all as confused as you are, for once.

Noel, of course, was brilliant-- I've never been present when he wasn't, but he gets better every time. We were all a little scared when Morning Glory started, waiting for him to get tackled again, but everyone survived unscathed.

I'm going to have to eat Gem Archer's face off. Just so everyone knows. He skips and does heavy metal arm-swinging strumming randomly. He's my hero.

When Andy goes back to play next to Jay's Hammond, I always think it must be the most hippified corner of the Rock Verse. I'm shocked we can't smell patchouli in the stands, really. I cannot express how happy I am that these two are in Oasis now. (Even though Andy's been there kind of a long time. Well, Jay isn't IN Oasis, but he's there, and has been for at least the last three shows I've seen. Anyhow, Jay's face is apparently an exact replica of the Shroud of Turin. He was one of my major Rock Boys in high school. No, really.)

That is my "for posterity" moment for this particular Oasis show. I forget how many times I've seen them, but it was either 8 or 9, I think. Wish I remembered what the fuck I saw the first time. (Except that Cornershop opened. Those were the days!)

Whoa dude. So I caved and bought the new I'm Outta Time EP from Oasis. It's not one of the stronger songs on the album, but I like the vocal track a lot. (Imagine that, I like Liam Gallagher's whiney fucking voice? What? Yeah, I'm sure you're amazed.) And dude, the remix is SO MUCH BETTER as a track-- the backup shit isn't cheesy at all and the vocal is so much clearer and... kind of freakishly pretty, really.

Also, the Shock of the Lightning remix, while droney as hell, is pretty sweet-- particularly when the drone resolves for a few seconds and lets you breathe again. And the To Be Where There's Life remix is of course brilliant, because I fucking love that song. Obviously. (I always end up loving Gem's stuff. He's amazing, really.)

And I get to see them again in about ten days. With my best friend ever in the whole world.

What the fuck is up with this month loving me? When is something terrible going to happen? I'm so goddamn nervous for the last few days, it's ridiculous! My back is actually fucking up because of it!

Which just goes to show that I'm being a terrible Buddhist. We're never happy when we have everything we want, because then we're just scared of it being taken away. I'm going to look at the little Buddha on my desk and think about that.

Not that I'm Buddhist, technically. But still, you'd think I would've learned a thing or two by now. I'm gonna work on that. Me and Buddha.

Also, I need some damn blank CDs so I can rip some of this stuff. This is annoying.

Well, it wasn't pretty, but the Steelers prevailed over the Ravens, so I don't have to spend today being sulky. Because if there is one team I really, really can't stand to lose to, it's Baltimore. (Although my husband points out that Ray Lewis hasn't murdered anyone in a few years. Good for you, Baltimore, keeping your murderous drug dealing players on a short leash! That's the first step on the road to recovery!) It's truly humiliating. I'd rather lose to Cleveland.

And if you know Pittsburgh, you know that's saying a lot.

Still we beat them both. AFC NORTH MOTHERFUCKERS! (Bengals, Browns, Ravens, Steelers. Come on, if we don't wrap that up we don't deserve it. See how I say "we", like I'm on the field? Yep, I'm lame.)

And I have what look to be very decent Oasis tickets as of an hour ago, because they went on pre-sale for the North American tour at 10am for people signed up at the website. They're actually coming to DC woo! (Fairfax actually, which is even better because it's really close to me.) I got concourse seating because floor seats are always a pain in the ass for short people, and I had my share of fighting at V Fest. I was close once. I'm cool. I just wanna be able to see.

Oh, and I'd also like to put in a request to the universe: Please don't let anyone get tackled this time. Especially Noel though. Liam's still kind of tough. Noel looks like he weighs about 90 lbs and took a week to recover from that last one.

I was hoping to crash on Keli in MN (and visit Megh!) and see them there too, but the tour is in December, which is right before I have to go to India and will be trying to save money. So that's probably not happening. Anyhow, I want to go there in the summer, not the winter. I'm a southern girl, dammit. (Er... a mid-atlantic girl really. But still. MN in the winter would surely be the death of me.) So I'll probably invite myself up there around that time, depending on when we're supposed to be in Shanghai and Brussels.

Delhi is apparently in a sad state of affairs right now, but we got our tickets anyhow. Flying through Heathrow this time on BA, which makes me happy because going through Frankfurt on Lufthansa last time was god awful. (Okay, it was god awful on the way back because Bala had malaria and was fevered and sick as fuck, passed out on the seats in the waiting area and paying like 5 euros for a tiny cup of orange juice. But still.) I'm pretty sure this won't be any better, but I'm going to pretend so I can make myself get on the plane-- because my god, that flight is shit. DC-London-Delhi, then a week later to Chennai (Madras). then Chennai-London-DC a week after that. I probably won't be able to do much by myself in Delhi just because there's a lot of tourist kidnapping and bombing going on (aww, it'll be like Kathmandu the second time, but bigger and scarier!), but I might be able to set some things up with tour groups. Normally I hate them, but in climates like that it's best to go with a group that's already hired someone to pay off the terrorists/police (very often the same thing there, I've found). And then Bharat and Aparna will come for a few days and hang with me, and maybe I'll get to go to Agra and do the cheesy Taj Mahal thing.

Still wanna go to Bihar, because I'd love to see Bodh Gaya and all that good Buddhist stuff, but it's really not plausible right now. Too bad, that.

My mother-in-law is already making plans to take me to this really old library in Madras and hang out. They apparently have lots of palm manuscripts and the like-- it's colonial originally and I guess newly renovated. Sounds like heaven. I'm her favorite daughter-in-law because I read a lot, and it probably doesn't hurt that I write. And don't live with her :D So I have that and Mamallapuram to look forward to down south. That's shaping up nicely! I need to remember to get more pictures in Madras this time-- I hardly have any from last time, and it's a really good looking city.

ALSO: Nick is coming for his birthday and most of the week after! (middle of October.) Fun!

So yeah, yesterday was a ranty day. Looks like today won't be so much!